Indian Mobile Subscribers rise to 867.80 million, Broadband and MNP rises [TRAI March 2013 report]

After months of decline in mobile subscribers due to telecom operators cleaning up their subscribers list which are inactive for more than two months, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (TRAI) latest report as on 31st March 2013 reveals an increase in the subscriber base. India’s total wireless subscriber base ( GSM+CDMA+FWP) increased from 861.66 million in February 2013 to 867.80 million at the end of March 2013, registering a monthly growth of 0.71%.

According to the report also the number of total telephone subscribers in India increased to 898.02 million at the end of March, 2013 from 892.02 million at the end of February 2013, registering a monthly growth rate of 0.67%.

Private telecom operators hold majority of the wireless market share with more than 87.76%, where as Govt owned telecom operators BSNL and MTNL hold only 12.24% market share. India’s top five telecom operators added up most of the new mobile subscribers during this period. Reliance Communication wining the race by adding maximum number of subscribers of 30.26 lakh during the month, followed by Vodafone India with 24.66 lakh subscribers, Idea cellular with 23.17 lakh subscribers, Bharti Airtel with 15.73 lakh subscribers and BSNL with 15.73 lakh subscribers. On the losing side Sistema which operates as MTS India losses 21.21 lakh subscribers, followed by Aircel with 8 lakh subscribers and Tata Docomo with 5.73 lakh subscribers.

Bharti Airtel retained its top position with 21.69% market share followed by Vodafone India in second spot with 17.56% share and Reliance Communication (RCOM) in third spot with 14.17% share closely followed by Idea cellular with 14.01%. Out of the total 867.80 million wireless subscribers, 723 million were active on the date of Peak VLR for the month of March 2013.

According to TRAI report, by the end of March 2013 about 89.70 million subscribers have submitted their MNP requests to different service providers for porting their mobile number. Karnataka (10.72 million) subscribers topped in MNP request followed by Rajasthan (8.55 million) and Andhra Pradesh (8.1 million).

Total Broadband subscribers in India also increased to 15.05 million at the end of March 2013 from 15.00 million at the end of February 2013 there by registering a monthly growth rate of 0.35%. There are 161 Internet Service Providers (ISPs) which are providing broadband services in the country. BSNL tops in broadband subscribers with 9.93 million, followed by Bharti Airtel with 1.40 million and MTNL with 1.08 million.

Source –  TRAI